Page 199 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 6

Christian Psychology alive

Anna Ostaszewska (Poland)

Comment to

“Päivimaria Kuivamäki

– A Pioneer in Christian

Therapy in Finland“

I met Päivimaria Kuivamäki many years ago.
She was a psychologist working with children
and excited by Christian ideas in therapy. Then Anna Ostaszewska (Poland), psychotherapist
we met many times at the EMCAPP Symposi- for 30 years, supervisor, European Certificate
um and at conferences organised by ACC Fin- of Psychotherapy. Member of the Association
land. of Christian Psychologists in Poland (ACP).
Friends from Finland decided to use the name One of ACP founders. 1995 -2009 President of
ACC Finland, which means Association of ACP. 2008-2014 President of ACP Psychothe-
Christian Counsellors – but the organisation rapy Section. 2002-2014 Director of ACP Psy-
members are counsellors, therapists and psy- chotherapy Study and ACP Counselling Study.
chotherapists. The difference between thera- Since 2006 Secretary of the Polish Council for
pists and psychotherapist depends maybe on Psychotherapy. Vice-president of the European
the state law. Päivimaria is now a psychothera- Movement for Christian Anthropology, Psy-
pist for children. chology and Psychotherapy.
Päivimaria uses psychodrama and a psychody- At present she works as psychotherapist in the
namic approach in her work with children with Integrative Psychotherapy Centre in Warsaw.
trauma. She also integrates the spiritual dimen-
sion. Many of her little patients experienced rapy. Evans and Gilbert in their book define
2
abandonment. Attachement theory (J. Bowlby) ‘integrativity’ as follows: „Generally, the term
is obviously useful in such work. Creating he- refers to any orientation in psychotherapy that
aling relationship with a child should repair a exemplifies, or is developing towards, a con-
child’s traumas experienced in a close relation- ceptually coherent, principled theoretical com-
ship with adults. bination of two or more specific approaches,
In thinking about a child, Päivimaria uses Chri- or represents a new meta-theoretical model
stian anthropology. She believes that every child of integration in its own right”. European As-
is created by God and He has a plan for the life sociation for Integrative Psychotherapy refers
3
of everyone. She works in a secular context and to “emotional, spiritual, cognitive, behavioural
she does not pray with children during sessions. and physiological levels”.
But, when children bring up subject of faith in Päivimaria Kuivamäki was really a pioneer in
the session, she is fully prepared to talk about Finland in creating a Christian environment for
1
this. counsellors and psychotherapists. She has a very
According to European standards, we may pro- professional approach to therapy and counsel-
bably call her approach integrative psychothe- ling. Establishing criteria for Christian therapy
and counselling training clarifies the professio-
nal position of ACC Finland. Also, criteria for
1 Worthington EL, Kurusu TA, McCullough ME, San- acreditation of counselling therapists and those
dage SJ. Empirical research on religion and psychothe-
rapeutic processes and outcomes. Review and research 2 Evans, K., Gilbert, M. (2005) An Introduction to In-
prospectus. Psychol. Bull. 1996; 119(3): 448–487. tegrative Psychotherapy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Koenig HG. Research on religion, spirituality, and mental 3 European Association for Integrative Psychotherapy.
health: a review. Can. J. Psychiatry 2009; 54: 283–291. EAIP Statement of Philosophy. London, March 2006
www.euroaip.eu .
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